Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema
Directed by James Schneider.
France, 2011, DCP, color, 68 min.
French with English subtitles.
DCP source: Cinémathèque Française
France, 2011, DCP, color, 68 min.
French with English subtitles.
DCP source: Cinémathèque Française
Epstein has always been better known in France than in the US, but only in the last decade has international interest in his filmmaking beyond The Fall of the House of Usher been revived. One important moment in the rediscovery of Epstein is this overview of his life and work by American filmmaker James Schneider, which was produced by the Cinémathèque Française. Schneider, using archival footage and interviews, focuses on Epstein the Breton filmmaker, returning to the coastal locations in Brittany of such films as Le tempestaire and Mor’vran. Schneider poignantly contrasts the lonely grandeur of these locations with Epstein’s own marginal position within the world of French cinema in the 1930s and 1940s.